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Enhancing PET Degrading Enzymes: A Combinatory Approach
Summary
Scientists worked on improving enzymes that can break down PET plastic, one of the most common plastics in consumer products. Using a combinatory approach, researchers enhanced the performance of a naturally occurring PET-degrading enzyme from the bacterium Piscinibacter sakaiensis. The study suggests that engineered enzymes could eventually help create a circular economy for plastic waste by enabling efficient recycling at the molecular level.
Plastic waste has become a substantial environmental issue. A potential strategy to mitigate this problem is to use enzymatic hydrolysis of plastics to depolymerize post-consumer waste and allow it to be reused. Over the last few decades, the use of enzymatic PET-degrading enzymes has shown promise as a great solution for creating a circular plastic waste economy. PsPETase from Piscinibacter sakaiensis has been identified as an enzyme with tremendous potential for such applications. But to improve its efficiency, enzyme engineering has been applied aiming at enhancing its thermal stability, enzymatic activity, and ease of production. Here, we combine different strategies such as structure-based rational design, ancestral sequence reconstruction and machine learning to engineer a more highly active Combi-PETase variant with a melting temperature of 70 °C and optimal performance at 60 °C. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that these approaches, commonly used in other works of enzyme engineering, are most effective when utilized in combination, enabling the improvement of enzymes for industrial applications.
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